David Mirchin, Internet Law Professor and a friend, wrote an excellent article about the YouTube / Viacom case. You can read it here, and contact him here.

I am going to have a podcast with David on this topic soon, so if you have any questions that need to be addressed, feel free to write a short comment…

UPDATE: Techdirt, one of my favorite blogs, adds another angle in this post.

4/4/07 UPDATE: Scott Kirsner from Cinematech (one of my favorite blogs about the relations between technology and the movie industry) has a short piece about bothsides claims as they were published in Washington Post.

Yesterday was the first day of VON, here in San Jose. I spent most of my time at the New Video Summit, discussing the new media world. Most panels were insightful and engaging. Panels were led by Om Malik and Rafat Ali, among others.

If we want to summarize the event in one clear statement here it is:

No one has a clue what will happen in this field.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Content discovery is the number one problem for video creators and aggregators. Channels is one way to tackle it, and everybody are looking for technology to create them easily.

2. Advertisers are not embracing the new medium yet, though sponsorships are starting to flow, especially onblip.tv (or at least their impressive COO, Dina Kaplan, was the most vocal about it). Targeted ads is what everyone is looking for, but no one knows how to do it.

3. Most panelists stated that You Tube – Viacom dispute would not change the industry, but eventually create new rules of engagement between traditional and new media companies. The general consensus was that “the future is here” and these disputes would not destroy this young industry.

4. Not surprisingly, all site owners support net neutrality. At the same time most panelists agree that Quality of Service is important for industry growth. I wonder how these two views co-exist.

5. In Rafat Ali‘s panel, two interesting assumptions were made: one is that it will take 3 years to this industry to pick up and bring economic value to its players, and it will mature in 5 years. So, my dear readers , we have a lot of work to do….

6. In the same panel, most panelists stated that Google would find a way to monetize this new medium for local advertisers, and by doing so mature the market. When I sat behind Jeff Jarvis, it seemed like he agreed with them…